Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Pallin Rahl 10-04-06, 02:55 PM	Note To My Players: Kindly hit the "Back" button... i.e. GET OUT! (Kevin & Matt) :D --- Warning: LONG post - but I appreciate you reading it through before responding. :) Some of you might remember my recent post "Help orchestrate a murder most foul..." ( http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=702702 ) ...some of my ideas below have stemmed from the discussion therein. :) To summarize... Next session I plan to run an Eberron murder mystery, of sorts. Key Target: Gabriel, human Archivist - currently residing in Sharn; has ties to the Adventurer's Guild (to which the PCs belong) and to Morgrave University. The PCs and Gabriel are on friendly terms - having helped one another a number of times. Gabriel's always been presented as a generally friendly, knowledgable (especially regarding the occult), and trustworthy guy (if a tad ...awkward ...from spending most of the time in study, pouring over ancient tomes, etc ). Basically, for all intents and purposes, though, he's a "good guy" and an NPC I've enjoyed. I've decided to put his life on the line. The Setup: A few sessions ago, I ran my 2 PCs (it's a "2-Player" + DM campaign) and an NPC cleric friend of theirs, Dryzen, through a slightly tweaked White Plume Mountain (i.e. the updated 3.5 version of the White Plume Mountain adventure found on the main site, with a handful of tweaks). In my plot setup for that adventure, not much was known about the wizard behind WPM... but by the time the PCs left the dungeon, they had stumbled upon one of the wizard's notebooks/diary-of-sorts. To be honest, all said and done, they didn't think it a particularly noteworthy find (more "nifty, we found some historical info / lore"). ...and personally, I just tossed it in there as a possible seed for a future adventure of some sort. The PCs gave the book to Gabriel to analyze, etc. So I was thinking that this book might be a key reason for Gabriel's death. ...someone was after some info contained therein. However, I was also keen on another idea... Last session, I hinted that Gabriel and Sarine (another NPC friend of the PCs, a reporter at the Korranberg Chronicle... class-wise, a Beguiler) were working on some sort of story/investigation. ...and I figured that this too could be a fun setup for Gabriel's murder - maybe they were getting close to finding something out that certain parties didn't want discovered... or maybe they did find something out and were being "silenced". So maybe this investigation/story they were working on could be a key reason for Gabriel's death. The Plot (primarily where I'd love some help getting things fleshed-out): I got to thinking... how might I use both ideas effectively? Maybe have them work in concert (somehow tie both elements into one plot to murder him)? ...maybe have one a red-herring (for instance, maybe he did find something out in his helping Sarine, but it didn't actually lead to a plot to have him murdered)? ...maybe have both plots be in play, but only one of the two actually resulted in his murder? First I got an idea about the book. Recently I finally got around to reading the Tome of Magic... and I really like some of the stuff in there. So I got to thinking, maybe the wizard from White Plume Mountain was a Binder (using pact magic from ToM - which basically lets one bind powerful entities called vestiges to themselves to receive a measure of their power). ...and maybe he had discovered a powerful new vestige and put the details of his finding in the book. Such a thing would be quite desirable to some... Then I saw a post here on the Eberron boards where people were discussing creating Eberron-specific vestiges ...and the concept of Taratai as a vestige sounded very interesting. Taratai, if you're unfamiliar, is basically the rebel Quori that essentially lead the group of like-minded Quori on the exodus from Dal Quor that eventually resulted in the genesis of the Kalashtar race (Taratai was "lost" along the way... no one is sure what happened to her). ...and I got to thinking... hey, I might even be able to tie the Dreaming Dark into this (something I'm sure one of my PCs is itching for ;) ...as he's a Kalashtar psychic warrior) ...as they'd probably not be too thrilled with the prospect of someone summoning the vestige of Taratai and binding with her... allowing her influence to persist, etc. However, I do not want the ultimate discovery of the Dreaming Dark as a huge threat to be what Gabriel and Sarine were investigating for the Chronicle... something that big will wait till another day... ;) Lots of ideas... lots of "holes"... lots of plot needs to be nailed down :) --- Oh, final important note... Though at first I was 100% sure I wanted Gabriel dead... I'm thinking it might be fun to put his ultimate fate in the PC's hands, whether they know it or not. I'm not sure if I'm going with this or not, yet... but here's some ideas I'm kicking around. The last session ended with the 2 PCs returning from an adventure (basically The Forgotten Forge, modified to be appropriate to level 8 PCs :))... only to be greeted by a friend of theirs at the Adventurer's Guild hall with the grim news that Gabriel has been found dead. Next session, when they go to Gabriel's "office" (his workspace, whatever you'd call it heh) to investigate, I want the murder to be rather grusome. ...possibly carried out in such a way that leaves the body itself unidentifiable. ...the size of the body, clothes, where it was found, etc... all would point to it being Gabriel, though (except maybe a clue or two to suggest it wasn't him) - not sure on the details yet. In fact, Gabriel has been taken for some reason (probably to pick his brain or have him analyze something in relation to all that is going on ...again, not sure) and things were set up to make it look like he was already dead. I'd set up a time table... starting when the PCs first show up at the crimescene. Over time, the longer the PCs take to solve the mystery, Gabriel will be tortured for info or whatever... eventually leading to his death, if the PCs don't get to him in time. This way, we have multiple options, depending on how the PCs deal with things... Either: They solve it quickly and find him in pretty much the same state they've always known him They take too long in solving it and Gabriel is found alive but he's had to withstand horrible torture... he may come away a far more serious/grim fellow (think of the evolution of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in Buffy/Angel... from nervous bookworm to ...well ...freakin' Batman :P) They take FAR too long in solving it and Gabriel is found dead. I'm thinking that maybe, in this scenario, it would be beneficial to have Sarine apparently die in a similar manner as well... have her taken, along with Gabriel... only she somehow gets away to clue the PCs in that neither she nor Gabriel is dead yet and he needs their help... yadda yadda. :) There will likely be at least an Inquisitive or two on the case as well, that might prove important. I'm totally not sure if this is the route I want to take... I'm just tossing it out there as an additional idea I had. --- So what do you all think of this? ...how would you swing things? How would you flesh-out this plot? ...or would you scrap it and go with something different entirely? :) Any help appreciated! :D Final note: If curious, the two PCs are: Level 8 Human Archer (ranger/fighter/Order of the Bow/Peerless Archer) Level 8 Kalashtar Psychic Warrior (currently all PsyWar, focused on psionic claw stuff)
taski 10-04-06, 09:29 PM	Sounds like it's got a lot of potential! Already, I have some ideas. Concerning the villians: Personally, I'd vote for the Dreaming Dark. Give that Kalashtar a real enemy. :devil: The Inspired are tricksy people. They may not have taken Gabriel forcefully... Gabriel gets a knock on his door, and when he answers it, he finds a beautiful woman with an alluring accent, looking a bit lost. She asks for directions to an affulent hotel, and while he replies, she subtly charms him, and requests that he please show her the way, as she does not know common very well, and cannot read the street signs. He finally leads her to her hotel room, and she insists on repaying his kindness, invites him into her room, etc. etc. Once they have him, they need not resort to physical torture. They can simply read his mind, continue charming him, etc. That's more their style, anyway. Why make an enemy when you can force them to be your friend? Also, all this psionic coaxing could have that residual psychological effect on Gabriel you're looking for. After he's rescued and aware of his mistakes, he could become cold to the plights of strangers, particularly to damsels in distress, and suspicious about all telepaths and enchanters.
Shady314 10-05-06, 08:28 AM	Well just in general I think it sounds just fine and dandy. All I could really point out is minor stuff and what I would personally do. Oh wait you asked for that! Perfect. :) That vestige stuff is all fine and good except I just don't see how Taratai could become a vestige. So that part I just could not personally bring myself to "buy." Otherwise it's good to me. Dreaming Dark make great villains but they are subtle villains. Not so much with the gruesome slayings. They'd probably only resort to killing if it served a secondary purpose or the target was simply too powerful to be subverted. I'd love to use the Tyrants and or the Cabinet of Faces in a situation like this. So much fun and intense situations to be had with changelings and doppelgangers. Inquisitives (The prestige class) are supposed to really be some of the best detectives in the world. I don't see them getting a case like this. Unless you go the fantastically gruesome route or Gabriel is more important than I realized. And TWO of them well that runs the risk of overshadowing the PCs own investigation. If you didn't mean the prestige class but just the profession forgive the uselessness of this paragraph. So here's how I would twist/run the adventure. Feel free to cherrypick anything that strikes you. I would definitely tie in the wizard's book with the murder. It is a good roleplaying opportunity for PCs with the possible guilt. Gabriel and Sarine's investigation has been into the mysterious pratices of the Deneith Sharn enclave. (It let's them get close to the DD without exposing everything) Did they recover any of the weapons of legacy at White Plume Mountain? If so the DD will want their hands on such powerful artifacts. (They are always questing for those)And or the wizard had come across the DD and wrote of them in his log as well as his explorations on this mental magic called "psionics." Though he did not know them to be the Dreaming Dark or Agents of Riedra and so Gabriel does not know everything. Gabriel in his investigation with Sarine or through knowledge obtained through the wizard's log has procured some sort of item that grants PR or has otherwise taken precautions against this unusual "psionics" so when the DD agent(Id use a Deneith NPC from the S:CoT) comes to check him out it's not the cakewalk against a bookworm they expected. Things go south and Gabriel is killed. Now the DD agent must act quickly. She has nothing to go on. She came to investigate someone showing too much interest. She knows nothing of the book, Gabriel is dead and so his mind can't be read. I imagine Gabriel had a veritable mountain of reading and writing material. Searching it all could take her days. She settles upon her best option. Misdirection. Ritual killings might mean the involvement of the blackened book as would evidence of anything magical. (I am imagining the struggle that killed Gabriel was not "obviously" magically/psionically related. I leave the interpretation of obvious to you) She grabs the nearest mundane object and bludgeons him horrendously mutilating his face. She throws him around and messes up the place a bit. Grabs a few books that seem the most expensive(wouldn't you know it she grabs the dang diary) and leaves intending to return eventually and search thoroughly. The body is discovered and the watch is called. Seems an open and shut case. Morgrave doesn't have the most sterling reputation. Seems like a robbery gone wrong and the watch is going to write this one off. The detective in charge is not evil nor horrendously incompetent just jaded, not very good and a tad cowardly. The PCs should come upon the scene as they are wrapping up. So the crime scene has been poorly managed by the detective contaminating it and it is off limits to the (hopefully) distraught PCs that want to check it out. They can bribe, intimidate, or use diplomacy to let the watchman allow them to investigate. A Diplomacy tactic may allow them a somewhat official sanction to investigate. No matter what tactic I'd have the watchman give them a sincere apology for their loss and a promise to hunt down the killer and to wish them luck in their own search. If they want to come back later the body will be gone but they can explore the scene. And they can sneak into the morgue to see the body. Identification is impossible due to the severity of the attack. The psych warrior could see something to lead him to believe there was a struggle involving psionics. Have them roll spot checks and no matter what they roll they will at least notice that book they gave him is gone. Ill let you decide what higher checks might reveal. Hopefully they will remember Sarine and the investigation and she will be the next most likely stop. Now the cabinet and tyrants come in as a third party to confuse things. They had also gotten wind of the investigation and have already been watching the Deneith enclave with interest. They know something is up and have their suspicions. And suspicions of the DD in general. They had let them investigate hoping it would help their own investigation. They had even given them a few nudges in the right directions. They had an eye on Gabriel and while they didn't see the actual murder they were actually the first to find him. They realized immediately Sarine would be a target and have abducted her and replaced her with a changeling or doppelganger to spring a trap on any would be assailants. They are questioning her to find out everything she knows and everything she knows about Gabriel. (This will later set up a perfect damsel in distress situation and a possible freak out for the PCs) The DD agent however is holding off after the botched operation. She doesn't know if Sarine has any protections and can't have anything happen to Sarine hours after Gabriel. It'd defeat the purpose of misdirection. Enter the PCs at Sarine's. There are a myriad of options here. The tyrants see two armed strangers and ambush them as soon as they enter. Good if your PCs are the kind to be itching for some combat. They may not know who they are so they allow "Sarine" to talk with them and get them in a vulnerable position before they ambush. Sarine does too poor a job fooling them and when she is revealed the PCs are ambushed. Combat could obviously be avoided here if you or the players desire. My Favorite: If you want the Tyrants to know a ton they could have two agents there impersonating Sarine AND Gabriel that do an absolutely wonderful job and fool the PCs. Then use them as their agents to find the book and deliver it to them without having to lift a dang finger themselves. If these two do a poor job... Combat! or they come (somewhat) clean and ask for their help. If the PCs refuse they dangle Sarine's life in front of them. Depending on events the PCs will now have even more information to go on and a mandate from the Tyrants to find the book and why it was taken. They will head off after changelings totally in the wrong direction EXCEPT that this way leads them to finding Sarine and getting the info they need from her unless the changelings are using her to control the PCs in which case going after the Tyrants means Sarine most likely dies. If you really want to mess them up they could get detained by the watch as they try to sort through a bunch of dead changelings and these two. Not for long though as the detective from earlier will be easily convinced of their story and let them go. But he'll warn them time is of the essance as the trail grows cold. Just to light a fire under them. And it really just all grows from there. That's how I'd kickstart the adventure anyways. I'll think of the physical circumstances of the murder (and clues) more maybe. But this took way more typing than I intended. Sorry for the length.
Pallin Rahl 10-05-06, 11:58 AM	Hey... lengthy is fine by me ;) (*note my OP heh) Good stuff to consider thus far :D ...any other sugggestions?
Pallin Rahl 10-09-06, 12:40 PM	:bump:
Pallin Rahl 10-12-06, 11:29 AM	Last :bump: Have to solidify stuff by tonight (for prep)...
Shady314 10-13-06, 04:00 AM	Sorry I didn't come up with anything else. I'd still be curious to see what you decide and how it pans out though. Good luck.